The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing photosensitive materials wherein solid processing agents for photosensitive materials are replenished by means of a cartridge, and more particularly, to an improvement of a technology of replenishing solid processing agents in the course of processing photosensitive materials.
There have hitherto been known automatic processing apparatuses wherein a series of color development, bleaching, fixing and stabilizing are performed automatically for silver halide photographic photosensitive materials.
In such an automatic processing apparatus, a photosensitive material such as a film or a photographic paper is processed when it is fed successively into processing tanks each containing different processing solution, and each processing solution is deteriorated in terms of processing capability because of its fatigue caused by its work of processing photosensitive materials and because of another processing solution in a preceding tank that is carried to that processing solution as a processing step advances.
For the reasons mentioned above, there have been employed replenishment methods wherein replenisher solutions containing processing agents are replenished periodically based on an area of processed photosensitive materials.
In addition, a publication of WO92/20013 and Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 119454/1993 (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I Publication) disclose apparatuses wherein replenishment is made by solidified processing agents (a tablet-shaped processing agent having a circular section prepared by compression-molding powder or granules of processing agent component into a certain shape).
Processing agents for silver halide photographic photosensitive materials include, for example, color developing agents, bleaching agents, fixing agents and stabilizing agents for color negative films, and color developing agents, bleach-fixing agents and stabilizing agents for color photographic papers. In the case of an automatic processing apparatus that is called a minilab and is installed in a photofinishing laboratory, these processing agents in seven kinds need to be replenished to respective processing tanks or those in processing tanks need to be replaced with new agents, resulting naturally in complicated jobs and erroneous operations of putting in wrong tanks.
Owing to solidified processing agents, ease of handling has been attained considerably. For processing color films and color papers, however, management such as purchasing at least seven kinds of processing agents individually in accordance with a necessary quantity of each processing agent has been time-consuming.